A Comprehensive Collection - Swami Vivekananda

REINCARNATION. 97Taking a one-sided, cursory, and prejudiced viewof thesurroundings and the unessential details, sometimes disgusted also with the vagueness of many schoolsand sects, and often, alas ! driven to the opposite extremeby the violent superstitions of organised priestcraftmenhave not been wanting, especially among advanced intellects,in either ancient or modern times, who not only gave upthe search in despair, but declared it fruitlessand useless.Philosophers might fret and sneer, and priests ply theirtrade even at the point of the sword ;but truth comes tothose alone who worship at her shrine for her sake only,without fear and without shop-keeping.Light comes to individuals through the consciousefforts of their intellect : it comes slowly, though, to thewhole race, through unconscious percolations.The philosophers show the volitional struggles of great minds history:reveals the silent process of permeation through whichtruth is absorbed by the masses.Of all the theories that have been held by man abouthimself, that of a soul entity separate from the body andimmortal has been the most widespread ;and among thosethat held the belief in such a soul, the majority ofthe thoughtful had always believed also in its preexistence.At present the greater portion of the human race,having organised religion, believe in it and; many of thebest thinkers in the most favoured lands, though nurturedin religions avowedly hostile to every idea of pre-existenceof the soul, have endorsed it. Hinduism and Buddhismhave it for their foundation ;the educated classesamongthe ancient Egyptians believed in it ;the ancient Persiansarrived at it ;the Greek phiosophers made it the cornerstone of their philosophy; the Pharisees among the7